Do your kids care?

#76
#76
My 13 and 8 year old daughters ocassionaly ask me about the Vols. I think it’s out of pity. (they have only lived in Austin, TX) They have only known Tennessee to suck at basically everything. Hopefully b-ball will change that this year.
 
#77
#77
Took the 5 year old to the Fl game. He played with the Beanie Smokey that we got from the book store from an hour and a half before kickoff until the bitter end. He doesn’t give a hoot about FB. He does woo when singing Rocky Top and enjoys the guys weekends. Maybe next year when he starts playing flag football he will start to enjoy the sport.
 
#78
#78
My kids (9, 7, and 4) not only don’t care about the Vols. They don’t care for football at all. They are more into baseball and soccer by a large margin. Of course, we live in Atlanta. Maybe that has something to do with it.
 
#81
#81
VolFan..But said:
If you where in charge, what would you do?
Click to expand...

Put business minded people who aren’t Haslam loyalists in the roles of President & Chancellor. Show them the data of how much enrollment and revenue improve upon a strong football program.

Eliminate any academic enrollment hurdles that any other SEC program doesn’t have.

Stop worrying about stadium improvements, breezeways, bathrooms, brick facades and focus more on hiring the right personnel in the athletic program.

Get Blackburn as the AD in waiting once Fulmer has decided his timeframe for exit.
 
#82
#82
My 3 yr old seems unaffected by our recent struggles......except when I steal the living room TV from him to watch us play when Paw Patrol is on...then he gets upset :cool:
 
#83
#83
SEC TITLES

1951 - Tie. Won National Title but played no team except Kentucky (17th) that finished in the top 20. Played a ranked Maryland in bowl game and lost.
1956
1967
1969
1985 - Florida really won it but where named ineligible during the season by the NCAA.
1989 - Fulmer named Offensive Coordinator and Recruiting Coordinator.
1989 - Tie.
1990
1997
1998 - Also won the only legit National Title. Until 2014/2015 when Saban won back to back, Fulmer was the last coach to win back to back SEC Titles.

2003 - Hamilton named AD and started the process of destruction.

Between 56 and 67, how many kids didn't care? Between 69 and 85, how many kids didn't care? Philip was named Offensive Coordinator in 1989 the year after the 0-6 start. They won it in a tie. 1990 they won out right. Since 1950, we are in the longest drought. But if they counted ties since 1992 as they used to, Tennessee would have had a few more. They did have multiple East Division titles and some of those would have been ties like the old days. So not really Apples to Apples. From 1989 when Phil took over as Offensive Coordinator and Recruiting Coordinator to 2007 when they played in the SEC Title game, that was the high water mark for Tennessee football ever. Since Hamilton fired him in 2008, it has been a losing record, no 10 win seasons even with a 12th game of a D1AA team, no trips to Atlanta, not SEC titles, no National Titles. Pruitt will get them back in contention one day, but as you can see, Tennessee is not Alabama. Never will be.

Next time we have a Hall of Fame National Title coach, think twice before running him out of town. It was the vocal minority that ruined the program. Well...and Hamilton.
 
#84
#84
I live here in Birmingham. So not in a Tennessee friendly environment overall... And my wife is from SC and a huge Clemson fan. That said, all my kids (son 16 and twin girls 11) are Vol fans. They always go to their UT clothes on spirit days at school. However, they won't watch an entire game with me. They keep checking the score or will watch if it's exciting, but their favorite thing is watching them run through the "T". Once that's over, they kind of scatter. That appears to not be that uncommon either. A lot of their friends even being Alabama or Auburn fans are the same way. Peripherally follow but don't watch or know the details of the game. When I was growing up and to this day feel like I play every single down! So I'd say a large part of it is generational too. Being a kid today for the most part ain't like it used to be... And stay off my lawn!
 
#85
#85
Jack Burton said:
Put business minded people who aren’t Haslam loyalists in the roles of President & Chancellor. Show them the data of how much enrollment and revenue improve upon a strong football program.

Eliminate any academic enrollment hurdles that any other SEC program doesn’t have.

Stop worrying about stadium improvements, breezeways, bathrooms, brick facades and focus more on hiring the right personnel in the athletic program.

Get Blackburn as the AD in waiting once Fulmer has decided his timeframe for exit.
Click to expand...

You make some decent points. But Blackburn had a breakdown and is no longer in the business. And yes, hiring has been a mess. But you can't just hire someone that has no interest. Lane/Dooley/Jones was the best of what they had to work with. The big name guys had no interest in following a legend and a place that treated their legend the way they did. Name the top coaches. And ask yourself if any of them wanted anything to do with this place. Saban, Dabo, Myer, Stoops, etc where not coming to Tennessee. Stoops told them in 2008 "if Phil can't make you happy then neither can I". It is not about money. Who would you hire to be football coach? Urban left Utah for Florida. Stoops was a Florida coordinator. Dabo was a WR coach and promoted. Kirby was a coordinator. Mark Richt was a FSU coordinator. Malzahn was a coordinator and one year at Arkansas State. The other Auburn coach was head coach at Iowa State with a losing record. Mullin was a coordinator. Orgeron is well Orgeron. Missouri promoted a coordinator. Texas hired the Houston coach. A&M hired the guy that FSU was showing the door. Miami hired the guy Georgia fired. South Carolina hired the DC at Auburn and fired Florida HC. Ole Miss hired an assistant. Vandy hired a coordinator. Penn State hired the Vandy coach. Michigan hired the NFL guy and that is not working out. Notre Dame hired the Cincinnati coach. Oregon promoted an assistant. Va Tech hired the Memphis coach. Who did Southern Cal hire? Washington hired the Boise State coach. Wisconsin hired a coordinator.

So, who would you hire at Tennessee?????


It appears that Tennessee now has the right basketball coach, baseball is improving and the football hire was good. Now they have to have time to fix the mess they inherited. Barnes has done it. He is in his what 4th year?? His 3rd year he won the conference. Relax.....the Hall of Famer has the train back on the right track. It just will not happen overnight.
 
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#87
#87
imw8n4u said:
Just curious....I have 2 daughters, one is 14 the other 12. Tennessee has been bad or irrelevant their entire lives, certainly all the parts they can remember. I've tried to indoctrinate them as orange blooded, Vol loving, true to the end fans, but they don't care to watch or even follow Tennessee football. They don't know if we play, who we play, whether we win or lose, or what the score was. All they really know is that their dad seems to be in a bad mood almost every fall Saturday recently. Is this just because I have girls instead of boys, or are we losing a whole generation of fans?
Click to expand...

If your 14 year-old daughter is anything like my 14 year-old daughter, the Vols could be 132-0 in the last decade, and she would not give a crap. Mine is a freshman in HS. The HS she attends has a pretty good team. We go to the games, and I don't see her watch five minutes of them. She just socializes.
 
#88
#88
VolFan..But said:
You make some decent points. But Blackburn had a breakdown and is no longer in the business. And yes, hiring has been a mess. But you can't just hire someone that has no interest. Lane/Dooley/Jones was the best of what they had to work with. The big name guys had no interest in following a legend and a place that treated their legend the way they did. Name the top coaches. And ask yourself if any of them wanted anything to do with this place. Saban, Dabo, Myer, Stoops, etc where not coming to Tennessee. Stoops told them in 2008 "if Phil can't make you happy then neither can I". It is not about money. Who would you hire to be football coach? Urban left Utah for Florida. Stoops was a Florida coordinator. Dabo was a WR coach and promoted. Kirby was a coordinator. Mark Richt was a FSU coordinator. Malzahn was a coordinator and one year at Arkansas State. The other Auburn coach was head coach at Iowa State with a losing record. Mullin was a coordinator. Orgeron is well Orgeron. Missouri promoted a coordinator. Texas hired the Houston coach. A&M hired the guy that FSU was showing the door. Miami hired the guy Georgia fired. South Carolina hired the DC at Auburn and fired Florida HC. Ole Miss hired an assistant. Vandy hired a coordinator. Penn State hired the Vandy coach. Michigan hired the NFL guy and that is not working out. Notre Dame hired the Cincinnati coach. Oregon promoted an assistant. Va Tech hired the Memphis coach. Who did Southern Cal hire? Washington hired the Boise State coach. Wisconsin hired a coordinator.

So, who would you hire at Tennessee?????


It appears that Tennessee now has the right basketball coach, baseball is improving and the football hire was good. Now they have to have time to fix the mess they inherited. Barnes has done it. He is in his what 4th year?? His 3rd year he won the conference. Relax.....the Hall of Famer has the train back on the right track. It just will not happen overnight.
Click to expand...

I’m fine with keeping Pruitt for now because we need the stability. Hopefully he’s the long term answer too. I’m referring more to assistants and other roles like Alabama uses to have the best leadership available to the kids. We need hyper focus on hiring the right guys in the small roles and making sure everyone is pulling in the same direction including academics.

I think we’re in a good position I just don’t want to see us going back down the Haslam road again. If this works then maybe he loses some influence.
 
#89
#89
He!!, I don’t even care that much anymore. Why worry about the kids.

I’m tired of the administrative sh@t show that led to this. Let the Haslams buy all of the tickets.
 
#90
#90
I remember back in the early 60s when I was a young feller watching a game between Ark and Texas One of them was #1 the other #2. The camera was panning the fans and I kept seeing these cool hog snout headgears. I told my dad," I want one of those". He said son, " that wont go over well here in northeast Tennessee but I will try". Sadly he passed away and I never got one, so I may have been a Hog fan in my early years. I always checked the Tenn score out but it never affected me until the Archie Who game. Me and some buddies were out playing basketball when another buddy came up and told us Ole Miss just beat Tenn 38-0. I said you must have heard that backwards. When I got home and my dad said yep its true, I felt like I had been throat punched. So I guess I officially became a blood runneth orange fan that day. Now my daughter who was born in Mississippi and is 37 has seen the good times and the bad times but she loves Tenn football more than I do now. Oh to have that passion about fall Saturdays again. Rocky Top.
 
#92
#92
Unfortunately my Grandson is in a split household Alabama/Tennessee. He said Pops how come Tennessee always looses, I want them to win sometimes. SMH
 
#93
#93
My boy is 3, and when the Vols played WVU at the start of the season he sat on the coach yelling "yay blue team! yay blue team!" Not gonna lie, that cut me deep. Hopefully we'll be good when he really starts to get into football.
 
#94
#94
My son is 23 and has never cared much for football, even though he has the size for it. He played basketball when he was younger and lettered for three years on his high school golf team. He prefers basketball because he understands it better than football. Having said that, he always went to HS football games and now goes to Murray State football games. He admitted to me the other night that going to the MSU games are no big deal, but is better than sitting in his apartment. I used to wonder where I went wrong, but now I'm just glad he doesn't do drugs or anything like that.
 
#95
#95
They do and they are heart broken each time we lose.

We watch old wins from the ‘90s sometimes to help with morale. The big Manning win against Bama caused them to jump out of their seats, grab large UT flags, and wave them all around the house screaming Go Vols!
 
#96
#96
20180929_181823.jpg
My kids care. My daughter is a fan in general and loves her Vols but doesnt follow the Xs and Os of the sports. My son already thinks he knows everything and tries to break down plays and say what he would have done.
 
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#98
#98
My 7 and 5 year old boys will gladly wear their shirts and they will cheer when I do and sing Rocky Top but I wouldn’t say they “care”.

Granted I didn’t really care till I was in my mid teens. I hope we are competitive by the time they reach that age.
 
#99
#99
Three kids, two boys and a daughter. All love the Vols. The weird part for me is that my daughter is more passionate than the boys. My guess is that it's due to me being deployed while the boys were younger.
 
#100
#100
VolFan..But said:
SEC TITLES

1951 - Tie. Won National Title but played no team except Kentucky (17th) that finished in the top 20. Played a ranked Maryland in bowl game and lost.
1956
1967
1969
1985 - Florida really won it but where named ineligible during the season by the NCAA.
1989 - Fulmer named Offensive Coordinator and Recruiting Coordinator.
1989 - Tie.
1990
1997
1998 - Also won the only legit National Title. Until 2014/2015 when Saban won back to back, Fulmer was the last coach to win back to back SEC Titles.

2003 - Hamilton named AD and started the process of destruction.

Between 56 and 67, how many kids didn't care? Between 69 and 85, how many kids didn't care? Philip was named Offensive Coordinator in 1989 the year after the 0-6 start. They won it in a tie. 1990 they won out right. Since 1950, we are in the longest drought. But if they counted ties since 1992 as they used to, Tennessee would have had a few more. They did have multiple East Division titles and some of those would have been ties like the old days. So not really Apples to Apples. From 1989 when Phil took over as Offensive Coordinator and Recruiting Coordinator to 2007 when they played in the SEC Title game, that was the high water mark for Tennessee football ever. Since Hamilton fired him in 2008, it has been a losing record, no 10 win seasons even with a 12th game of a D1AA team, no trips to Atlanta, not SEC titles, no National Titles. Pruitt will get them back in contention one day, but as you can see, Tennessee is not Alabama. Never will be.

Next time we have a Hall of Fame National Title coach, think twice before running him out of town. It was the vocal minority that ruined the program. Well...and Hamilton.
Click to expand...
This actually got me curious. I went back and looked at the TN records for the first 14 years of my life. My findings were surprising. When I was a kid, I thought we were just always good, but reality is we were pretty bad from '75 to '88 with a few notable exceptions ('84/'85 stands out, especially the Sugar Bowl win against Miami). The key was '89. I was 14 and that year we went 11-1, and from '89 until '01 we were as good as anyone, with a run for the ages from '95 to 2001. I was a UTK student from 94 to 99, all of the Manning years plus the title run in 98. I know most here know this history, but my point is this...I feel there is hope yet for my kids and their generation if Pruitt can get this thing going in the next 2 to 3 years.
 
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